Automotive Event Description

The 7th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition will be held at the Nashville Convention Center, November 1st-3rd, 2009. The last conference in Las Vegas in April drew over 430 dealership attendees and featured 46 exhibitors in over 70 booths spaces. Combined, the last two Digital Dealer Conferences drew well over 800 registered dealers, GMs, Internet Sales Managers, e-Commerce Directors and BDC/CRM Managers, and unlike the NADA Convention & Exposition, every one of them was there to learn more about Internet and technology-related issues, both from speakers and from exhibitors.

We expect 50 to 60 exhibitors and are once again expecting over 400 dealership attendees in Nashville this fall. We’ve done six of these now and have found the perfect balance of fulfilling both attendees’ and exhibitors/sponsors’ goals. There simply is no comparison or better value for your tight marketing/trade show dollars.

The speaking program will be heavy with practitioners who are having great success in their markets. We are bringing in speakers from outside the industry to help forward–thinking dealerships stay ahead of the curve. Once again, a half-day “newbie” class will be held before the program even starts so anyone new to this side of the business (including dealers themselves) can get up to speed quickly and get the most out of the two days of powerful sessions presented. And the super-successful first-time Peer Networking Roundtables we did last event in Las Vegas before the start of the conference were such a hit...we're going to do it again and also after the conference ends.

Comment Wall

If you are on the fence about going to the conference I suggest that you tune into Automotive Advertising Experts this Friday, October 23rd at 12:00 Noon EST to listen and learn from Cliff Banks representing Mike Roscoe, Dealer Communications and of course the 7th DD Conference. We will be reviewing the agenda, the sessions and the reasons to attend!

Also, as an added incentive to attend, Ad Agency Online, L.L.C. and FirstLook are co-hosting a "Post Party" on Sunday evening after the scheduled 5PM to7 PM reception planned at the conference to be held down the street at the Hermitage Hotel from 7:30 PM until Ralph falls off his chair in a drunken stupor.

All ADM members are invited to toast our shared visions for 2010 and to coordinate our agendas during the conference.

Even though we don't need an RSVP one would be appreciated so if you are going to the conference and you want to keep the pary flowing on Sunday night please contact me directly at pzads@bellsouth.net or call me at 561-962-2738 before the conference or during the conference at 561-213-4300.

Learn how to implement a strategy that uses a combination of dealer controlled web sites, OEM supplied assets, dealership databases and employees to leverage popular social networks into a social marketing and reputation management system that creates ongoing competitive advantage

Ralph Paglia will showcase actual dealership implementations of social media marketing and reputation management strategies. Attendees will learn how to measure performance and track the results required for increases in sales and profits. Learn how to create and sustain ongoing competitive advantages by building a foundation that position your dealership as the place to do business! Use customer engagement models that have become more effective than conventional interruption based advertising alone. Attendees will receive online access to step-by-step tactical blueprints that make it easy to use a combination of low cost dealer sponsored communities that are automatically updated daily using free OEM supplied assets. See how to engage your dealership’s employees within your community, then syndicate video, photo, blogs and discussion forums into the most popular social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Blogger, Wordpress and others to create a powerful and automated social marketing and reputation management network that generates real-world sales and profits.

Ralph Paglia is responsible for business development at ADP’s Digital Marketing Group. Paglia helped establish strategic alliances for ADP with digital marketing enterprises such as Google, Yahoo!, KBB, Specific Media, Jumpstart, DealerRater, Ning and DoubleClick. He has over 20 years of automotive experience including Reynolds Consulting Practice Leader and several dealership management positions. At Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix, his Internet and BDC teams generated over 4,000 vehicle sales in 2006. Paglia has developed digital dealer programs for Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Toyota and others. Paglia recently collaborated with Ford marketing executives to create and launch the Ford Digital Advertising Program for Dealers.

I hope everyone attending can jam into my Seminar on Sunday 1:00 pm to learn about the latest CONTENT SEO strategies to beat your competition in search marketing.

Everyone attending my seminar will be leaving with a workbook of actionable items that they can implement back at their dealership. You may even leave with a PCG hacky sack..throw at people who ask questions!

Also, anyone coming in Saturday night MUST come to the Pasch Halloween Bash at the famous Cadillac Ranch Bar...7:00 PM...dress in Halloween Costume and kick-off the Conference with a great night of fun!

I am actually excited about the 7th Digital Dealer Conference returning to its AAISP roots by being held in Nashville... This is where the first two AAISP/Digital Dealer conferences were held and there was a certain chemistry and energy that came from those first couple of events which were really the first time a conference was put together specifically for automotive digital marketing professionals... The camaraderie and networking amongst all of us who attended those first couple DD events was really exciting and many of us returned to our dealerships empowered for the first time with the knowledge and exposure to so many others who like ourselves were taking the dealerships we worked for in a direction that we all knew in our hearts and minds was the right way to remain successful in what we knew would be rough waters ahead.

Join me in Nashville for what will no doubt be a memorable and productive three days of sharpening our arrows, while adding a few more into each of our quivers.

“The semi-annual Digital Dealer conference has quickly become a "must-attend" event for me. Just when you think you're good - you're WOW'd by the best practices and creativity of a myriad of Internet professionals. The "cafeteria plan" that I bring back to my dealership has been an indispensable advantage. I'm selfishly glad that my competitors haven't yet attended!”

“I gained awareness of: tools available now, trends in Internet marketing, the intensity and techniques used by some competitors, a broader appreciation of the website as a "virtual showroom" and some hints for improving our own. Our owner is a forward-moving dealer. His investment in sending me affirmed the significance of the role I serve and challenged me toward creative and aggressive advances in how we do things both in marketing and in processing Internet-driven leads.”

“A great conference. I went into it expecting to glean a few ideas to help me back at the dealership, yet came away with a notebook full of exciting ideas that will be systematically implemented in the upcoming year.”

Here's a flash-back from awhile ago, but still true and very relevant:

“I attend several conferences each year and for the past 2 years the Digital Dealer conference has provided me with more real-world business practice improvements than any other. In 2006 our team from Courtesy Chevrolet went back to the dealership from the conference with new techniques that allowed us to increase used vehicle sales dramatically. In 2007 we brought back several new operational processes, but one related to URL acquisition began to pay off for us before the 2007 conference ended!”

“Trying to get old school car guys to understand the importance of this new way of communication is very difficult. The conference provided me with lots of facts, numbers and results to present to my GM.”

Attending (28)

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